Description

Last updated at 23:24, 5 May 2013Uploaded at 6:37, 16 Feb 2012

I always liked the idea of having the glass weapons in the game be see-through, but didn't care for any of the transparency mods that I've seen thus far. They always seemed to make the the weapons a little too ghost-like, and not enough like actual glass. I came up with a solution that gives the glass a much more realistic and subtle look to it. I hope you agree, and will download and enjoy your new and improved glass weapons! (This mod uses the textures provided by the high resolution texture pack from Bethesda)

*** "REAL Glass Armor and Shields with realistic transparency" has been released!!! Get it here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10751

I've also released a color variant of my mod using "More Morrowind Like Glass Weapons Texture" by JESSETIN3. You can find his mod here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=5311*Note: As of right now the mod uses the low res textures. When the HD version of his mod is released, I'll update my file.*Note2: I feel like the transparency might be less noticeable using his textures. I think I'll play around with it to get it looking better, but I'm going to wait until I get the HD files first.

Update 3/14: Decided to go back to 1.2 as the main file, as I felt the shadow problems from 2.0 were worse than the lighting problems from 1.2, I've kept 2.0 as a "beta" version. Feel free to try both and use whichever you prefer. Any more feedback I can get on which version you prefer would be great.

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KNOWN ISSUES:

With V 1.2 and lower, there was an issue where the blades of the weapons wouldn't be properly affected by certain light sources. Outdoors the blades would always look like they were in the sunlight, even if you were in a shadow. Indoors the blade would occasionally not be affected by light sources such as fire.

With V 2.0 I've fixed this issue, but added another unfortunately. Now, the blades seem to show shadows of objects that are behind them, rather than how they should be. Most of the time they look pretty good though.

With both versions, blood showing up on the weapon seems to be an issue, though it seems like they blood is showing up better in the 2.0 update. Also, in both versions, shadows don't seem to appear on the ground for the weapons.

I am always looking for fixes for all of this, and will update as soon as I figure anything better out. It's up to you to decide which version has the least annoying problem in your opinion. If anyone knows a solution to these issues or has any suggestions, please let me know, and also please let me know of any other bugs you encounter.

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The "REAL Glass Weapons with Transparency" mod unfortunately is not compatible with other texture mods just from downloading it. Fortunately there is a workaround that will require a little manual effort, but will get your favorite glass texture with the glass transparency effect from my mod.This essentially involves copying the alpha channels from the textures in my mod onto whatever textures you want to use, and using the meshes that I included. Below are more detailed instructions on how to do this.

Instructions:

**You'll need an image editing program (I use Photoshop), and download support for opening .dds files. For Photoshop, use this plugin: http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop

1. Extract all of the meshes (.nif files) from my mod and put them in the proper folder (data/meshes/weapons/glass).2. Open up both the texture that you want to use, and the texture (of the same weapon) that came in my mod into your image editing program. I would do one weapon at a time, (i.e. open up my glasssword.dds and your glasssword.dds) Make sure the textures are the same size, resize them if they aren't (preferably to 1024, or 2048 for the BattleAxe and GlassArrow)3. Then, either: a. Copy your texture onto my texture file or b. Copy the alpha channel from my texture file onto your texture file. Whichever you prefer, both options will work. Just copy and paste or shift drag the layers.4. Save out that file as a .dds file with the alpha channel in the proper folder (data/textures/weapons/glass) as the same name. For photoshop, I use the "DXT3 ARGB 8 bpp | explicity alpha" option when saving the .dds file.

This should work if you've done it correctly and everything is named correctly and in the right folder.

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Version Info:2.0- Fixes some lighting issues where the blades wouldn't look like they were in shadow, but unfortunately added another issue where it shows shadows of objects behind them.1.2- Adds a nice new transparent glass bow to the game.1.1- Adds transparent arrows to the game.*This update uses the Proper Length Arrows mod by MadCat221. If asked to overwrite, be sure to use the .nif file in my mod, as this contains the transparency info. Get the mod here if you want it for the other arrows: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=51641.0- Initial release, covers all glass weapons except bows and arrows.

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Please check out my other mod "Icy Chillrend with transparency", which is how I originally figured out how to do realistic transparency: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9705

If you prefer Chillrend's Vanilla texture (Which is just the glass sword colored blue), I've released it as an optional file here.